Saida Grundy, Incoming Boston U Professor, Regrets 'Racist' Tweets

Saida Grundy, the incoming Boston University professor whose "racist" tweets caused a backlash recently, said this week she regrets the remarks.

The black sociology professor’s Twitter page has since been made private, but The Associated Press reported some of the posts included comments such as “white masculinity is THE problem for America's colleges,” “Deal with your white (expletive), white people. slavery is a *YALL* thing,” and “Every MLK week I commit myself to not spending a dime in white-owned businesses. And every year I find it nearly impossible.”

"I regret that my personal passion about issues surrounding these events led me to speak about them indelicately," Grundy said in a statement this week. "I deprived them of the nuance and complexity that such subjects always deserve."

The university’s president, Robert Brown, described the comments as “hurtful.”

"I understand there is a broader context to Dr. Grundy's tweets and that, as a scholar, she has the right to pursue her research, formulate her views, and challenge the rest of us to think differently about race relations. But we also must recognize that words have power and the words in her Twitter feed were powerful in the way they stereotyped and condemned other people," Brown wrote in an open letter to the campus.

“Why are young white males a singled out issue to you Ms. Grundy, as opposed to all young males?” Pappas wrote. “If you are going to work at Boston University you have to teach college aged white males eventually no? You probably already have/are working with them. To us, this seems like you are unqualified to grade their work as you clearly demonstrate some kind of special bias against them.”

Twitter users were divided on the issue.

Black college professor, Saida Grundy, dares to mention white men and they trash her career. Welcome to America. http://t.co/4jlSlVgkHF